Tradelines News

India to Press for Moderate Tariff Liberalization, Hybrid Template

Posted February 09, 2015

(Asit Ranjan Mishra – Livemint)

Member countries of the regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) grouping will aim to reach a consensus on an initial level of market liberalization in goods and finalize the modalities in services negotiations in the seventh round of negotiations in Thailand starting on Monday.

In goods, India will press for deviation in tariff liberalization above the initial offer, while in services, India will propose a way out in the form of a hybrid approach to be followed instead of the currently discussed positive or negative list based approach.

While India, China and South Korea have proposed initial tariff liberalization in 40% of the traded goods, Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have been demanding up to 80% of tariff liberalization, while the ambition levels shown by Australia is nearly 90%. Click here to read more.